How to Tackle Yarn Storage & Organization?

Drowning in your yarn stash? Here are some yarn storage solutions and tips for organizing your yarn stash into something manageable!

Happy New Year to all our readers!

Well, as we enter the new year, most of us are hit hard with the organization bug in January. It happens to everyone!

So, here we are with some solutions that’ll help you get more organized or even start some sort of organization for the first time. This will help you figure out the best ways to store and organize your yarn collection. Maybe, this is the year when you won’t end up struggling with yarn storage.

It doesn’t matter if your stash is small or big; it takes a little bit of time to figure out the best way to store and organize. Today, we will share some tips on how to best tackle yarn storage irrespective of the size of stash you are working with!

Yarn Storage

There can be different types of setup for the different sizes of yarn stash. It also depends on how much space you have for storage. So, you might be able to store your medium-size stash in a much smaller area!

Most of us are used to simply storing our yarns in closets in some sort of bins or drawers. This way, the yarn stash is hidden without cluttering the room, and it’s still organized in bins. Or you can go creative and repurpose the existing things you have in your home to make space for yarn storage.

For now, we will only focus on the simple and most common yarn storage options and leave out the DIY ideas for some other time.

#1 Drawers

You can use Sterilite 3 Drawer Cart for yarn storage. It’s transparent, and you will still be able to see what type of yarns you’ve stored within the drawers. These drawers are pretty cheap, and you can even paint them with certain colors to match your home decor and put a label outside.

#2 Foldable Bins

If you have a lot of vertical closet space, foldable bins are the way to go. Foldable fabric bins like Amazon Basics Collapsible Fabric Storage Cubes are perfect as you can flatten them when they are not in use and store them without taking too much space.

These bins come in various colors and sizes, so you can find the ones that best fit in your closet. One more positive about these bins is they are pretty cheap. You can even put a tag or label outside so that you don’t have to pull out all of them while searching for something.

#3 Plastic Boxes

Clear plastic boxes are also an excellent option for yarn storage and organization. One such box is IRIS USA CNL Clear Latching Box where you can store categorized yarn and store the boxes themselves in the closet.

Yarn Organization Tips

No matter what storage unit you choose for your yarn stash, these helpful tips will help sort your yarn collection into something manageable.

Tip #1: Organize similar items together

To prevent yourself from going nuts finding that one specific yarn, try sorting the yarns either by type or purpose. So, you can sort them by brands, yarn size, color, or what they are meant to be used for. Whether you choose drawers, boxes, or bins, you can store multiple balls of yarns within the same unit. Try stacking them so that you can see all of them at a glance from the top.

You can choose another box to store new yarn skeins or balls that are not used frequently, or you don’t have any project in mind using these yarns.

Tip #2: Plan and keep yarn for a project together

It’s best to plan out your projects and keep the yarn together in a single storage unit. This will help you in a few ways:

• you will always have an idea about how much of the yarn is remaining
• you won’t end up using it for some other project in-between

Tip #3: Use a ball winder and make stackable yarn cakes

We get yarns in all shapes and sizes and it can be tricky to store them with all their differences. And that does not include anything about the leftover yarns from other projects. You can use a ball winder to make different yarns into uniform yarn cakes. Making them uniform and of the same shape will be undoubtedly helpful as you will be able to stack them in storage units.

Wrapping yarns into lovely little yarn cakes will make them easy to store. And, whenever you want to use these yarns next, it will be much easier without any tangles.

Whether you have a big stash or a small stash of yarn, a ball winder can completely change the yarn storage and organization game. There’s no doubt that you should have a ball winder if you believe that you can never have enough yarn!

Tip #4: Keep the current project yarn in a box or bin

Your working space and storage space might not be the same. So, you can keep all the yarn for a current project in a separate storage box or a foldable bin and keep it wherever you sit and work. As all the yarn will be together, you can even move around with it if you want to work in a different place. This way, you don’t always have to go back to your yarn storage to get a new skein of yarn when the current one gets over.

For this purpose, you can use a yarn storage bag that can hold up to 3-4 skeins along with other knitting or crochet accessories required for a project. Several such bags are available, and one of the best yarn tote organizers is the Teamoy Knitting Bag with six compartments to keep yarn.

Tip #5: A space for micellaneous items that won’t fit in anywhere else

The tips above are useful for sorting out the yarns that you need to store. When it comes to storing little projects, scraps, or leftover yarn that’s not enough for the ball winder but can still be used as embellishment, you need a separate space.

If you store these tiny things with other yarns, you won’t ever find them again!

You can also use this space to store items and tools related to your yarn hobby. But, it is crucial to keep track of things you are putting inside so that it just doesn’t become a junk space.

A Tiny Recap

A quick recap of some of the most important takeaways:

• use boxes, bins, drawers, shelves, whatever fits best in your space.
• get a ball winder! its cheap and will make your life so much easier.
• store scraps seperately
• don’t hoard if the scraps are too tiny to be of any use
• keep a seperate bin for current project

This was it from us. Figuring out yarn storage and organization is tricky, and not one size fits all. Don’t be sad if you have a lot more than you expected or have less yarn than others. It’s not about the size but what you do with it!

Thanks for reading! If you have any more suggestions or tips, let us know in the comments below about how you store and organize your yarn stash.